Cattle quality through Cloncurry improves all the time

The facility has been leased by Nathan and Dustin Keyes since 2016.

The brothers know the Cloncurry yards inside and out from years of working alongside their stock agent father John Keyes, who was well known through working with Brodie and Co, CALM, and buying for Smorgons Meats.

"We have the calf factory to the north, cattle growing out round here, then cattle can go north to export, south to channels for finishing, and east to meatworks and feedlots," Nathan said.

"We find business divides itself evenly. It's whoever's got the best money at the time."

From January this year, the brothers have processed 220,000 head of cattle and expect another 30,000 head through in October.

"We expect more cattle to arrive before the end of the season, as the second round of mustering is still underway in the Gulf," he said.

"So far it has been a good year, as the feedlots have been very competitive all year," he said.

Nathan said there had been more cattle heading south, from the Northern Territory this year.

"Along with the cattle heading to the feedlots, we have seen a run of backgrounder and restocker lines, as producers look south, due to the softening of the the live export market and its' hiccups," he said.

"However, the live export market has really started to fire in the past month with cattle heading to the Port of Darwin."

The quality of the cattle were said to be good, with the usual Brahman types from the Gulf and flatback cattle further south.

"What we have really noticed is the improved quality in the Northern Territory cattle," he said.

"We also spell the bulls bought in the east heading to the Territory and there have been some really good quality bulls being bought over the past few years, and this is now being reflected in to cattle coming back through."

The Cloncurry Saleyards are the second largest cattle handling facility in Queensland, with the capacity to hold up to 20,000 head of cattle.

There are two facilities; a set of the clean yards for tick free stock only, and a set for cattle from the tick areas.

The yards have had recent upgrades that have improved safety and usability of the facility including the replacement of unserviceable posts, rails and gates, dust suppression with water reticulation across the entire yard and upgrades to truck access and loading facilities.

Earlier this year the yards hosted the first bull sale in Cloncurry in over a decade.